Starmer urged to prioritise child sexual exploitation victims
Share:
Charities and experts call for national conversation to move away from sensationalism after Musk criticism. Keir Starmer must move the conversation on child sexual exploitation away from sensationalism to support for victims who have had help and protection reduced in recent years, charities, campaigners and experts have said.
A joint statement, whose signatories include government services contractors such as the Salvation Army and the Snowdrop Project, says changes in the law have made it harder for survivors to be recognised as victims and to access support services. Their intervention comes as the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced an urgent national review of the scale of grooming gangs and a series of other measures to tackle them.
The move came after increasing pressure on the government to act since the issue was taken up by billionaire Elon Musk on his social media platform, X. Ministers have denied that they would not have acted if Musk had not spoken out. The statement, signed by more than 60 charities, law firms and academics, among them the Survivors Trust and Hope Not Hate, will be shared with Starmer but is aimed at politicians of all stripes.
It says: “We call for those in the public eye to help us move the national conversation and action towards the needs of victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation. Child sexual exploitation is recognised as a form of modern slavery and child abuse. Yet, child protection and children’s services have been cut back, while a number of support systems have been dismantled through laws restricting survivors’ access to help.
